Following on from the end of the last thread, I want to say something about JM's so-called journalism career.
I didn't know until today that she had actually been taken on as a trainee journalist by the Southend Echo. I knew she used to write a column for them and some of those are laughably dire which might give the impression of the Echo as a less-than-serious publication.
It isn't.
It's one of the few local and regional papers still going in this country and the Echo publishes daily, also a rarity now. While these pubs traditionally do cover hyper local news like the Brownies or the council's war on potholes or whatever, they have also historically been a very good training ground for journalists. In the old days, it was a way into journalism for working class (mostly but not all) men who didn't go to uni. The other good way to get into journalism is through your posh university degree and nepotism or some combination of the two.
The Southend Echo is owned by Newsquest group and they have a very reputable two-year training programme which focuses on the trainee working around different desks or beats for periods of time, to gain experience and learn the ropes. At the core of it is the NCTJ, the certificate that most print journalists earn because employers then know you've got an important working knowledge of journalistic technique but also media law, shorthand etc.
So, if it's true that Jack had a traineeship like this, which she didn't complete and just tossed away, then she's a bloody fool. It would've been a very good pathway into a well paid profession without having a university degree. If it's also true that she got her foot in The Echo's door because of her father, then she's an ungrateful, spoiled fool. Ten years down the line and she could have an established and respectable media career by now, having paid her dues.
She had both a column with her own byline where she could write whatever she wanted AND an opportunity to learn the job in all the other aspects of bringing out a paper. And she threw it all away and huffed off, publicly slagging off The Echo and giving them the two-fingered salute.
And now she sits, alone in her house, arranging and re-arranging her furniture and doing absolutely
duck all else.
(This tidbit really cuts deep for me because I've worked as a freelance journo and I know how hard it is to break into the business, especially if you don't have connections. Hundreds of people every year apply for jobs like that and don't get them and Jack Monroe is a fool.)
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